Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/author/jeffgillies/page/7/)
Has Toyota’s sticky gas pedal debacle shaken your confidence in Asian cars? Why should we expect anything different from Asian carp? If we’re going to have carp, we better build them here, says Flickr member Michelle B4. Don’t forget to submit your own carp bomb. And check out the waves these bombs are making in the local press.
In January, the Supreme Court denied Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox’s request to halt the incoming Asian carp by closing the shipping locks between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. That decision has come back to haunt them, according to today’s carp-flavored photobomb from the Conservation and Restoration Network. Based on their facial expressions, most of the justices seem happy to face their carp judgment. Except the stoic Justice Samuel Alito (standing, top left), who’s only missing a blindfold and cigarette. Where else will the carp sneak now that they’ve breached the electric barrier?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Sunday released its final version of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan. The plan spells out the agency’s goals and benchmarks for fixing up the world’s largest freshwater system through 2014. The document updates a draft of the plan that was released in December and was open to public comment until Jan. 8. The EPA pulled the old version from its Web site, but since I had a copy sitting on my hard drive, I though I’d take a look at what’s changed.
The voracious and invasive Asian carp is on its way into the Great Lakes, pitting governments, environmental groups, shippers, boaters and anglers against each other over what ought to be done to stop it.
In an attempt to inject some levity into a potential environmental catastrophe, Echo presents: the carp bomb.
Which Great Lakes fishery do the Asian carp threaten? The $7 billion one or the $4.5 billion one? Does that include the commercial fishery? What about Canada?
A couple natural resource economists help us settle up.
The Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies — a joint effort between UW-Madison, NOAA and NASA — runs a blog featuring posts of weather-related satellite imagery. The posts often include beefy animated images of things like volcanoes in the West Indies and potential vorticity anomalies on the California coast. Luckily, the institute’s Wisconsin bias sometimes shows through and they offer up cool Great Lakes scenes. In December, they put together this mesmerizing shot of cloud bands streaming over Lake Superior. Photo: University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center
Be sure to let the whole image load and start looping, which could take a few minutes.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave us a peek this weekend at what groups vying for Great Lakes Restoration Initiative cash hope to do with it. The deadline for the EPA’s first request for proposals under the GLRI was Jan. 29. The agency reports that it took in 1,057 proposals for $946 million worth of projects. A list of every proposal is available here, though there isn’t much to learn besides the first five to 10 words of each proposal’s title.
A biological balancing act between the premier Great Lakes sportfish and its prey could be at a tipping point in Lake Ontario.
Chinook salmon are the foundation of the Lake Ontario recreational fishery.
Ever wonder what it’s like to work as a Soo Locks technician? Mike Rowe discovers the dirty truth tonight on his hit television show Dirty Jobs. The episode airs on the Discovery Channel at 9 p.m. The Soo Locks are a series of gates and pumps in northern Michigan that allow ships to pass through Lake Superior and Lake Huron.
By Brian Laskowski, Shawntina Phillips and Jeff Gillies
Jan. 21, 2010
Editors note: This is part three of a three-day series on the environmental implications of GM’s bankruptcy. Massena, Flint and Bedford are three towns that rose in the industrial might of the General Motors manufacturing era. Now Motors Liquidation Co., the company that owns GM’s worst assets, is preparing to close the door on the automaker’s legacy in these cities. But before it leaves, Motors Liquidation or GM must account for decades of pollution at former factories and waste sites.